Pros:

Cons:

Anyone who's ever sat down for lunch with any development team knows that, as a rule, they're usually groups not known for comedy stylings. Talent, resourcefulness, toy collections, sure but humor? Not so much, which makes Planet Moon Studios the odd man out, as things go. Its Giants: Citizen Kabuto was a twisted stroll through what might have been a mutated set of alternate English Isles. Now with backing from LucasArts, the not quite follow-up is Armed & Dangerous, an action blast that salvages Giants' shortcomings with heaps of humor and style.

Armed & Dangerous dares to ask two questions: How many spent shells go into the recipe for freedom, and how many ludicrous cooks does it take to make it work? The chefs in this kitchen are the Lionhearts, a ragtag group of mercenaries, led by a masked man known only as Roman. His companions are Q, a gleaming robot with a predilection for tea; Jonesy, a diminutive chap who really likes explosions; and the wizened Rexus. As Roman, you're backed up in battle by Q and Jonesy, who can be ordered about with a few basic squad commands.

After stumbling into a conflict involving a Shrek-like king and a load of peasants, the Lionhearts are slowly drawn into a plot to recover the missing Book Of Rule, but in true epic style, the plot doesn't really kick in for quite a while. There are 21 missions, broken into three basic types: shoot everything that moves, rescue/return runs, and base defense maneuvers. There's not a lot of variation, but much of the game is funny as hell.

Drink to Live

Oi! That was our last airship, I'll have you know!

Chalk some of that up to great cutscenes, some of which actually had me laughing out loud. The crew of UK actors that kept Giants afloat is back, and apparently unfettered by limitations of good taste. Some of the battlefield chatter gets old, but who can resist a Scottish guy screaming, "Ouch! Right in the scrotum!" The save system gives a hint about the general mindset -- pubs in the middle of each level offer save access, as well as a drink at the (unfortunately finite) well of health. And health kits are accompanied by the best cork-popping, throat-filling "glug" in gaming.

The laugh track, however, is just another way to bolster the relatively strong action. A sample tally for one base defense level: 10,091 shots fired, 387 enemies killed. That's a lot of carnage. On one hand, the firefights are all pretty straightforward third-person action; being able to order your allies is nice, but not really necessary. Time spent in the cannon aside, most of the time you're on foot, running like a grunt to shoot and kill. A few levels do harness your carcass in a high-tech jetpack/glider that both looks and feels great, launching you into the air with savage leaps to then deal out gentle death from the wistful air currents. A couple of other airships and stationary guns will show up, but the essential formula is run, then shoot. If you were armed with a typical, realistic loadout, this stuff would get old before the story was through. Fortunately, that's not the case.